Offer
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: ·Tao/Takeo· There had been some weird noises coming from Takeo's room. It was something M-21 had come to expect (and even dread) from Tao's room, but not Takeo's.


**Summary**: There had been some weird noises coming from Takeo's room. It was something M-21 had come to expect (and even dread) from Tao's room, but not Takeo's.

Contains Tao/Takeo. Possibly Tao/Takeo - trioship or always trioship, depending on how you read this.

Set after, I dunno, the fourth season?

Inspired by this pic by Moto-21: moto-21 tumblr com / post / 99386222056 A little nsfw.

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><p><strong>Echoes<br>**

By Dark Ice Dragon

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><p>There had been some weird noises coming from Takeo's room. It was something M-21 had come to expect (and even dread) from Tao's room, but not Takeo's.<p>

Was he having trouble with something? If he was… M-21 left his own room and went to Takeo's, pushing the door open.

"Tak-" The words died on his lips, his nostrils flaring at the scent of arousal. Takeo and Tao were on the floor, Tao straddling Takeo's hips, in the process of taking Takeo's shirt off.

M-21 flushed. Neither of them needed his help. Next time, he'd knock.

"Hey, M," Tao said with a small smile, straightening slightly. Takeo looked at him upside down, catching his breath.

M-21 looked away. "S-sorry." He was interrupting. Still interrupting. He should have left already.

Tao tilted his hea. "You know," he said, his voice soft, "you could joi-"

No. He wasn't hearing this. He'd intruded for far too long. "Sorry," M-21 said one last time and backed out, closing the door behind him, retreating to his own room.

xOx

Tao exhaled and slumped forward, resting his forehead on Takeo's shoulder. "Nooot exactly the way I wanted to bring this up with him," he muttered. But not doing it now meant M-21 would have sidestepped any future offers, thinking they were joking. If he wasn't already thinking that. Damn. Even under the best circumstances, it would have been tricky with M-21.

"Yeah." Takeo wrapped his arms around Tao. "So we wait?"

Tao kissed Takeo's shoulder. "Mmhm. Can't do much else apart from that." They'd made the offer; only M-21 could decide and trying to push him would only blow up in their faces.

xOx

M-21 leaned back on his door to close it, squeezing his eyes shut. Tao asked him to join him and Takeo.

He knew Tao liked jokes, but to joke about _that_…

Or maybe it was because he'd walked in on them.

His fault, as usual.

He shook his head, shoving himself away from the door. It hadn't been anything serious so he put the thought away, intending to throw himself at practising his transformation to distract himself.

xOx

"Morning, M!" M-21 turned at Tao's greeting, bracing himself for Tao to start joking with him.

He got a pat on the shoulder instead, which was something Tao normally did. "Is that galbi?"

It was, and he nodded. "Yeah."

Tao's eyes sparkled. "Sweet! And then kept going towards the kitchen, like there wasn't anything else to say. Like everything was normal. Tao would have been bugging him about it if it was something he'd wanted to happen.

That… Had he jumped to conclusions about what Tao was going to say? Had he dreamed it?

Frowning, M-21 started walking down to the kitchen as well.

xOx

There still hadn't been a peep from Tao by lunch and M-21 was getting paranoid. Was this part of the joke? Ask and then act like nothing had happened?

He hadn't heard anything from Tao – or Takeo, who would have apologised for Tao the first time they saw each other in the morning. But Takeo hadn't.

He had to have imagined it then.

But it was better he checked. Just in case. With Takeo, because Tao wouldn't let him live it down if he'd been wrong and he asked Tao.

xOx

M-21 knocked on Takeo's door; he'd heard movement inside and Tao was downstairs so he knew Takeo was alone.

When Takeo opened the door, he carried with him the scent of oil. Probably maintaining his guns.

Takeo smiled at the sight of him. "Come in," he said, walking back in, leaving the door open and M-21 did, closing it behind him.

He watched Takeo sit back at his desk, where his gun was disassembled. Takeo didn't go back to the pieces, watching him instead.

"Is there something wrong?" Takeo asked softly.

There was. Sort of. But it wasn't a big deal. Especially when he turned out to be wrong.

"Just. Last night," M-21 said, studying Takeo's face. No widening eyes or a confused tilt of the brow; Takeo nodded instead and shit, it had really happened. "What had Tao been about to say?" He'd jumped to the wrong conclusions, thought Tao was going to say something else.

"If you wanted to join us."

Wait.

What.

He'd been _right_? "Why would Tao-" Except Takeo was shaking his head and M-21 snapped his mouth shut.

"Both of us."

"_Why_?" he croaked out. They were better together, had far more history. Why would they want _him_?

Takeo just smiled.

M-21 opened his mouth. Closed it. "Thanks," he said as he left Takeo's room. Now that he knew this was a real option, he had to think it over.

xOx

M-21 had gone to the rooftops to ensure his privacy and to make sure he wasn't disturbed by anyone.

But going there had been more of an excuse not to think, and now that he was completely alone, he didn't have that anymore.

He sat down, a leg swinging over the edge, his head bowed as he stared at the cars trundling far below him.

Takeo and Tao wanted him to be with them. Takeo wouldn't joke about something like that.

They were happy enough without him. They didn't need him.

But they'd also asked him to join them. If they didn't want him, they wouldn't have done that.

So the question he had to answer was if _he_ wanted to be with them. Would he be happy with them?

But…

He already was.

To want more… There was too much of a chance he'd mess it up one way or another and lose them _both_. There was no reason for him to be too greedy. He was going to disappoint them though; they'd wanted him to be with them, but he couldn't risk it.

Decision made, M-21 got up and made his way back home.

xOx

Takeo and Tao were in the kitchen when he entered the house, Takeo heating something with meat, Tao in charge of drinks. No-one else was there.

"Yooo!" Tao waved at him, can in hand.

"Hey," he said, nodding to them. He exhaled as he walked over, and the other two's attention were on him, even though they tried not to be obvious, going back to what they'd been doing when he came in.

"You wanted me to join you?" he said, making absolutely sure, and Tao nodded.

"Yeah. What do you think?" All the pretence was gone, their tasks ignored.

"No," M-21 said, watching them.

"Okay," Tao said, setting his can down, Takeo leaving the microwave. Both of them went over as M-21 eyed them.

"'Okay'?" he repeated. Nothing else?

Tao beamed at him and enveloped him in a loose hung, Takeo covering his other side. "Yup! Okay."

M-21 relaxed in their embrace, taking in their scents and warmth. "Okay…" It was muffled against Tao's shoulder but he didn't care.

This was all he needed.

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><p>Argh, I always have trouble differentiating between romance, asexual relationships, aromantic asexual relationships and family dynamics when writing, which is why most of my stuff is labelled 'general'. But yeah, feel free to interpret how they are, if they're two sexual people with an asexual and they don't realise they're in a relationship (yet) or it's only Takeo and Tao in a relationship with each other. :3<p> 


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